Contentions

It doesn’t have the force of law, but this is a telling rebuke of the president:

Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a key provision of President Barack Obama’s health care law, sending a clear message of discontent to Washington and Democrats less than 100 days before the midterm elections.

With about 70 percent of the vote counted late Tuesday, nearly three-quarters of voters threw their support behind a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it. … Tuesday’s vote was seen as largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law. But it was also seen as a sign of growing voter disillusionment with federal policies and a show of strength by conservatives and the tea party movement.

Three-quarters? It is astounding, really, in a country divided bitterly over so many things that the most popular and unifying issue may be repeal of ObamaCare’s central feature. Other states have or will pass similar measures. Will all this magically disappear by 2012, or will the Republican nominee — whoever he or she may be (and it won’t be Mitt Romney if he doesn’t get on board) — have a huge, broad coalition of support for ripping out Obama’s “historic achievement”?

The individual mandate is for many on the left (Don’t force me to buy a plan from Big Insurance!) and the right (Don’t force me to buy what I don’t want!) a sore point, a reminder of Obama’s statist-corporatist agenda. We are now seeing just how many Americans across the political spectrum want it abolished before it goes into effect. It’s almost like “Repeal and Reform!” could be a popular campaign slogan.